Friday, April 22, 2011

Importance of POV

1st person, 3rd person, and even that almost-impossible-to-pull-off 2nd person.

Limited 3rd person, omniscient, alternating.

So many choices!! But whatever choice you make about point of view for your story, one thing is extremely important--that the voice of the character shines through. Always.

I found a GREAT quote tonight about this idea, from the blog, Murder She Writes (link here). I couldn't agree more, and love the wording of this...

The soul of the character needs to bleed through every word choice you make while in their point of view.


5 comments:

  1. Wow. I love that quote. I think that POV is the thing my writer's group struggles with most. SO much gets lost in POV if you are not careful. That is also where your distinctive voice comes in. Thanks for the memory jog on POV.

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  2. Isn't that a great quote? I needed the reminder, too! ;-)

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  3. POV is tough, definitely. I used to write only 3rd person, but recently, I've realized that sometimes, for some characters, 1st person works better.

    But not for all. It's weird, but I think the character can tell his or herself which works better, though I couldn't tell you in words why one MC may need 3rd and another 1st.

    Great quote though. It's always good to remember that...every single word matters.

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  4. April, great point. It's interesting to me, how a certain POV feels natural to one person, but not another. I've tried, tried, tried to write in 1st person, but it's not comfortable. Doesn't feel natural to me. So, I quit forcing it and just write in 3rd person. But, thankfully, I can choose between a more "distant" 3rd and a limited ("intimate") 3rd, depending on the characters.

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  5. First person is usually the most natural for me. I've tried third person limited, but it seems like it puts the reader at too much of a distance.

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